A forthcoming potentially controversial book by one of Italy's leading right-wing journalists sets out to explain Giorgia Meloni's appeal to Italians as the country's first women premier, saying she is a success story like late three-time ex premier Silvio Berlusconi who has dragged herself up from humble beginnings and speaks with down-home charm to the hearts of her electorate unlike the radical-chic leftists who loath her.
    Italo Bocchino has written the long essay for publishers Solferino, expected to generate controversy, dedicated to "Giorgia, the Daughter of the People." In it, he explains "Why Italians like Meloni" (€18, 256 pages).
    The book will be released on February 24.
    "The elections have certified it, the polls confirm it: Italians like Giorgia Meloni.

Because she is popular in the truest sense of the word and loves the people to whom she belongs.
    "Far from the snobbery of a certain left and yet ambitious, Meloni—even more than Berlusconi before her—is the embodiment of the 'Italian dream': making it on her own, achieving success," explains the publisher's introduction, which summarizes the book's content.
    In it, Bocchino retraces the key stages of Meloni's personal and political experience, with anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories, explaining the "phenomenon of 'Melonism' as a velvet revolution, made possible by determination but also by adherence to the values ;;and identity of an entire people." It illustrates the direct language, natural sense of closness, and relational talent that have made Meloni an atypical leader in the Western world.
    He enriches his analysis with exclusive interviews with key members of Meloni's "magic circle," including her sister Arianna and her right-hand man, Giovanbattista Fazzolari.
    This well-researched and insightful essay, which doesn't shy away from controversy, will spark much discussion.
    Bocchino, 58, has been a journalist for thirty-five years.
    He is the editorial director of former neofascist party house organ "Secolo d'Italia", now linked to Meloni's formerly shunned and currently dominant right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, and a television commentator on independent left-leaning broadcaster La7.
    Bocchino served in parliament for four terms, from 1996 to 2013.
    He is passionate about travel, gastronomy, classical music, and 19th-century French literature.
    With Solferino, he has also published "Why Italy is Right-Wing."
   

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